Welcome to the Official 

Mosquito Creek Lumber Company Blog!

I have embarked on a new and much smaller version of my On30 scale model railroad. A drastic downsizing move from a fair-sized basement with a two-story house on top to our small 2-bedroom cabin (no basement) has seen my model railroading efforts downsized as well. 

And, although it was a very hard task to tear down the old layouts, the prospects for a new, diorama style shelf layout is very exciting and freeing. The spare bedroom-size layout will not become so all-consuming like the basement version of the MCL Co. I always seemed a bit overwhelmed at trying to finish hand-laying track, do wiring, create scenery, build or paint rolling stock, structures, vehicles, people, keep the track cleaned, etc....for the big layout. So much so, that I most of the time would just stand in the aisles and get depressed and not even run a train! That's when it stops being a fun hobby and becomes a burden.

The former layout would have been a showpiece. The MCL Co. has been the subject of many national magazine articles, various how-to stories and published images. As of this Spring (2019) I will have had two cover photos published in the On30 Annual Magazine featuring my Mosquito Creek Lumber Company layout.

In this blog I plan to show all phases of my new layout as it is planned and built. I will tell you about the successes and the shortcomings of downsizing and creating a new very smaller version of the same layout.  

I am also building a lower-level HO scale layout based on my Hawaiian Island themed Big Island Rail,that was also in the basement of our former home. The BIRR is a contemporary freight hauler on the Big Island. You will see that layout included in the images at times.

For this first entry to my model railroading blog, allow me to give the back story to my Louisiana swamp logging outfit. You will notice I mention the narrow-gauge common carrier Blackwater Gulf & Southern Railway, which was a part of the whole layout concept. In this new, small version, I will not be including the BG&S Rwy because of lack of space!

Some background “history” for the Blackwater Gulf & Southern Railway and the Mosquito Creek Lumber Co. railroads

It's 1947 and the effects of World War II are beginning to wind down, yet the Country is still on “High Alert.” Post war-time rail traffic continues to provide revenue for railroads across the U.S., even the small shortlines of the Deep South. The narrow-gauge common carrier Blackwater Gulf & Southern Railway is no exception. The plucky little line is keeping its books “out of the red” thanks to car shipments of lumber from the saw mill to the Southern Pacific connection in Morgan City, LA. and military shipments to and from the U.S. Navy facility that's tucked away in the bayou just inland of the Louisiana Gulf coast near the town of Blackwater. 

The small southern town is the end of the track on a BG&S Rwy. branch line from Morgan City. Blackwater boasts a passenger depot and freight house with loading dock, plus a small locomotive servicing facility with fuel, water and turntable to spin locos for the return trip out-of-town. The narrow-gauge line heads north to serve the small towns of Praireville and Gonzales, all the way to railroad headquarters in Baton Rouge.

After a Japanese mini submarine was discovered off the coast of California in 1941, protecting home waters became a priority. The U.S. Navy operates a bayou outpost to supply patrol boats and observation seaplanes that keep the gulf and inland waters free from any “lingering enemy.” The Naval Air Station Blackwater has a warehouse, fuel depot, and minor repair facility at Navy Pier. Navy patrol boats and barges moor there in the muddy waters of the Atchafalaya River. A Navy Vought OS2U Kingfisher float plane, part of the Navy's Inshore Patrol Squadron, is also based there. Several rails spurs serve the warehouse, dock and fuel depot. The Navy has its own small switch engine to shuttle cars around the base, since the U.S. Government Property is off-limits to “civilian” rail crews.

The BG&S Rwy. provides the rail connection for supplies and munitions for the Navy, as well as passenger service along this branch line to and from the town of Blackwater. Daily mixed trains arrive to switch freight cars for the Navy at the small Blackwater yard and drop both military and civilian passengers at the depot. The Navy receives boxcars with parts and supplies that are transferred to Navy barges as needed, was well as limited incoming shipments of ammunition, and the occasional refrigerator car of groceries and supplies for the base commissary. Tank cars of fuel are also received at the base via rail for the seaplanes, water craft and the base switch engine. The Navy will receive the occasional flatcar of machinery or an empty gondola for loading mud from dredging work in the delta.

Other than the Navy interchange, the small freight house, dock and team track attached to the depot, and Blackwater Lumber Company, and transfer of boxcars and tank cars to and from the Mosquito Creek Lumber Co., the railway has no other rail freight customers in Blackwater.

Blackwater serves as the junction point where log trains from the Mosquito Creek Lumber Co. join the BG & S Rwy. tracks for the trip to the Morgan City saw mill. The logger hauls logs into Blackwater, makes a run-around move and heads through the diamond at Blackwater Jct. to compete the journey to the mill. Empties return via the same trackage to Blackwater, then back onto company rails, through the swamp and to camp. Since some of the Mosquito Creek Lumber Company employees “commute” to work each day from Blackwater, the lumber company runs rail bus from camp to town and back. These trips coordinate with the BG&S Rwy. passenger trains to minimize layovers. The rail bus hauls mail and L.C.L. freight and some small supplies to the logging camp.

Developing a “believable” back-story for my new On30 swamp logger layout has been a lot of fun. I allowed my imagination to run free as I created this narrow-gauge pike. One of the things on the top of the list was to create a certain “mood” for the layout. The swamps of the deep south always conger up certain images in a person's mind, so I want my layout to bring those mental images of steamy bayous, alligators, green backwater and Spanish moss-draped cypress forests to life.

Logging ain't no picnic in this neck of the woods, so the scenery, equipment and operating scenario should reflect this. The light rails wind through water-logged groves of cypress and pine on low trestles spanning 'gator-infested swamps. The logging camp was to feature crew cabins built on barges, floating equipment scows and permanent buildings, like the loco shop and cook house, built on pilings over the mossy green waters.

Location, Location, Location

     My On30 railroad is totally fictional and didn't really exist, (at least to my knowledge). I still want to make it seem like it did, so my plan is to design a swamp logger layout that combines the look, feel and operations of a number of “real” railroads in the Deep South, such as the Argent Lumber Co. and the Red River & Gulf. I looked for an area on the Google map that could have been home to a logging line back in the early to mid-1900s. Using the  “story” of my railroad (more on that in a moment), I found a region of the Louisiana bayou that has a mid-sized waterfront town (Morgan City, LA) to become the location of the Mosquito Creek Lumber Co. sawmill and standard gauge rail connection with the Southern Pacific. Plus this area, south of Baton Rouge and west of New Orleans, has lots of backwater bayous and swampy forests that fit my vision for the swamp logger.

Choosing the “Right” Name

My operating plan for the new On30 layout involves two narrow gauge railroads; a common carrier and a logging operation. I want the names of both rail lines to reflect their locale when someone reads the side of the equipment. I chose to call my common carrier the “Blackwater Gulf & Southern Railway.” The name immediately gives the railroad a sense of place in the southern region of the U.S. somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico. The name “Blackwater” actually comes from a favorite Classic Rock song from 1974 called “Blackwater” by The Doobie Brothers. “Old blackwater keep on rollin', Mississippi moon won't you keep on shining on me.” My logging line is called “Mosquito Creek Lumber Company.” This name also gives a visual picture of the conditions the loggers work under. The railroad draws its name from the swampy backwater bayous and the Mosquito Creek located along the tracks near the logging camp.

Another “tool” I use to help establish a sense of place for the layout is Google Maps and Google Earth. I check out the satellite views of the area my railroad is theoretically located. Unlike the Big Island Rail, which is an interpretation of a railroad that actually existed in Hawaii, I printed off a couple screen captures from Google to help plan the operations of the routes of the rail lines.